Air SyncHD Wireless 1080p HDMI Transmitter Kit Review

Simple Setup and Use in Real-World

Setup can not be described as anything other than plug an play. In my case, I put the transmitter inline between my DVR and my living room HDTV and plugged in the power cable. Add the HDMI and power cable to the receiver on the bedroom HDTV and poof, the DVR screen is now on both HDTV screens. There is no software to install and no menus to navigate, so with some quick cabling my bedroom HDTV instantly came alive.

In addition to the transmitter and receiver, brite-view also includes an IR blaster extender cable, an IR sensor extender cable, and a basic remote control. Plugging the IR blaster in to the transmitter and placing the emitter in front of my DVR meant I could now use my DVR remote control from my bedroom. Very cool!

The remote control, with only 5 buttons is indeed very minimal. The buttons include, power, info, wide, channel, and source. I must admit my first thought was that the “wide” button was referring to aspect ratio, but it is actually used to boost the transmission distance up to 100 feet for 1080i content (66 feet for 1080p content), which is ideal for the second room scenario. The channel button is used for changing wireless channels if you experiences video noise, while the source button changes the frequency of the IR blaster. As I said, there is really not much to configure with the Air SyncHD and aside from the power button, the only real need for the remote control is for fine tuning the settings to your specific setup. One thing to note is that the transmitter and receiver boxes have power and source buttons on them, but the other 3 functions are only available on the remote. Since the remote is not something you need to for regular use, be sure and store it in a safe place since loosing it will mean you can’t toggle wide or channel settings if your setup needs change.

While watching some recorded shows on my bedroom HDTV, I was impressed by the picture quality. The picture was sharp and the audio was clear, however there were occasional video and audio dropouts. After adjusting the channel settings, the picture quality remained great and I only experienced very occasional audio dropouts due to the distance to the transmitter. When testing the line-of-sight setup with the two HDTVs in the same room, I experienced zero video or audio issues.

Looking around at other wireless HD video solutions you find mostly PC to TV devices or products like the various Slingbox models from Sling Media (which don’t even have HDMI connections). Indeed there are only a few Air SyncHD competitors like Philips SWW1800/27 Wireless HDTV Link (which lists for $799 at Amazon) or Gefen’s GefenTV Wireless for HDMI (which lists for $539 at Amazon).

All in all the Air SyncHD does a great job transmitting an HD signal to my previously underused bedroom HDTV. Even though it is not using the HDMI 1.4 standard, I don’t see myself wanting to stream in full 1080p 3D. This is the only difference between a player that supports HDMI 1.4 and one that doesn’t. The Air SyncHD which comes with a 12-month limited manufacturers warranty is pretty elegant and considerably less expensive than running cords or re-wiring your house and was easy to setup. I can’t wait for my next sick day where I can lie in bed catching up on my sizable backlog of DVR recordings.

The Legit Bottom Line:
The Air SyncHD is a straightforward solution to wirelessly stream all your HD content. A number of other companies have wireless HD solutions, but they are generally more complicated and more expensive. At less than $190 brite-View’s solution is an obvious choice.